Human Trafficking: NAPTIP Hands Over 17 Victims To Relatives

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) says it has handed over 17 victims of the 18 intercepted at a clinic in Maitama, Abuja to their relatives.

The Head of Press and Public Relations, Mr Josiah Emerole said this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.

Emerole explained that out of the 18 persons, 17 of them were victims of human trafficking while the remaining one person held by his agency was a suspected agent.

Mr Muktar Ibrahim, Head of Information and Outreach of AEPB had explained that 18 women were apprehended at a clinic and diagnostic centre in Maitama around 8 p.m. by a team of AEPB officials on night patrol.

The women, who were purportedly on their way to Saudi Arabia, were allegedly directed by their traffickers to conduct some medical tests before they embarked on the journey.

The NAPTIP’s spokesperson said that the agency handed the victims over to their relatives with a condition to provide them whenever they were needed as the case was still under investigation. He said that the agent was still being held by NAPTIP while the suspected traffickers were at large.

According to him, his agency will do everything possible to arrest the suspects and bring them to book. Emerole noted that none of the victims had valid documents including international passports. He said that nine of the victims were from Kano state, four from Katsina, two from Nasarawa, two from Kwara and one from Jigawa state. (NAN)